Driving a bus for RAGBRAI

Ok, so for those who don't know, every summer in Iowa they have this great bike ride across the state of Iowa for a week. I am not that ambitious (although I would like to), to actually ride a bike, all week, in the heat, up and down the hills of Iowa. This year, the great, (almost God like Lance Armstrong), rode for a few days. The talk on the ride, (from what I heard the last 24 hours) was that he rode fast. He also said that he was going to come back next year and bring his buddies for a concert, bla bla. All to promote his anti-cancer agenda. Here is my two cents on that. Iowa is a great scenic, down to earth place to live and explore. It was great that Lance came but please don't come here and hijack RAGBRAI for your own agenda. I guess he's married to Sheryl Crow, a big country singer (I guess, I don't listen to country really--I don't hate it, I just don't listen). I guess HE divorced his wife to go marry Sheryl Crow....but I don't know the real story so I'll stop there. ANYway, RAGBRAI, stands for : "the Registers Great Annual Bike RIde Across Iowa". The Register is the "newspaper that Iowa depends on".....really just a liberal editorial paper, owned by the Gannett Media empire. Anyway, they organize this bike ride, which accomodates a couple thousand riders from the west to the east. I don't have any pictures but just Google it ok? Each night, the riders stop in a town and eat/eat/eat/eat/eat/eat/spend money, and rest. Thats where I come in. This is my second year that I agreed to help out "Team Impact" by driving a bus/van to transport the riders back to central Iowa. This year, I came out on Friday, stayed overnight with them at the last overnight stop and then drove to the end, and picked them up, and drove back in this cool "people mover" bus. I slept on the floor of church where they stayed, made some new friends, met some folks who came up from Texas, Illinois and Arizona, just to ride. The bus that I drove was a new, air conditioned and comfortable. My main role was haul people back to central Iowa but before we left, I shuttled the riders for our team, over to a lunch area and waited for them. It was a blast to serve others. Its been real hot and humid this summer in Iowa and you can imagine how hot uncomfortable it was to ride in the heat. On one trip over to DQ and Subway, I stopped and picked up a guy from St. Louis, who seemed near heat stroke. He just stumbled on the bus and walked to the back. Serving a stranger that is so assume! My thank you to Gerald, Nancy, First Assembly of God Des Moines, and Stephanie and Mike with Iowa Family Policy Center for letting me be a part of RAGBRAI this year. Can't wait until next year!!

www.desmonesfirst.org
www.IFPC.org